During his time in office, he served as chair of its study group on public accounts and ANC’s official spokesman on the National Assembly‘s public accounts committee. Feinstein was at the time referred to as “one of its most vocal and talented MPs”, who argued that a thorough investigation into the South African Arms Deal had to be done.[2] However, he resigned in 2001 when the ANC refused to launch an investigation into the matter.[3] He was succeeded by Geoff Doidge in both positions.

In 2011 Feinstein published The Shadow World, an investigation into the global arms industry. He reported “that the trade in weapons accounts for around 40 percent of all corruption in all world trade The .. trade in weapons is extremely closely tied into the mechanics of government. The defence manufacturers, those who make the weapons, are closely tied in to governments, to militaries, to intelligence agencies and crucially to political parties.”[5]

Mike Turner, then CEO of BAE Systems, said in August 2005 that BAE and its predecessor had earned £43 billion in twenty years from the contracts and that it could earn £40 billion more.[2] It is Britain’s largest ever export agreement, and employs at least 5,000 people in Saudi Arabia.[3]

In 2010, BAE Systems pleaded guilty to a United States court, to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements in connection with the sales.[4] An investigation by the British Serious Fraud Office into the deal was discontinued after political pressure from the Saudi and British governments.

The UK was already a major supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia prior to Al Yamamah. In 1964 The British Aircraft Corporation conducted demonstration flights of their Lightning in Riyadh and in 1965 Saudi Arabia signed a letter of intent for the supply of Lightning and Strikemaster aircraft as well as Thunderbird surface to air missiles. The main contract was signed in 1966 for 40 Lightnings and 25 Strikemasters (eventually raised to 40). In 1973 the Saudi government signed an agreement with the British government which specified BAC as the contractor for all parts of the defence system (AEI was previously contracted to supply the radar equipment and Airwork Services provided servicing and training). Overall spending by the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) was over £10 billion GBP (SAR 57 Billion).[5]

In the 1970s United States defense contractors won major contracts, including 114 Northrop F-5s. In 1981 the RSAF ordered 46 F-15Cs and 16 F-15Ds, followed in 1982 by the purchase of 5 E-3A AWACS aircraft. Following these deals and partly due to pro-Israeli sentiment in the US Congress, which would have either blocked a deal or insisted on usage restrictions for exported aircraft, Saudi Arabia turned to the UK for further arms purchases.[6]

The resulting elites, who control the three dominant institutions
(military, economic and political) can be generally grouped into one of
six types, according to Mills:

the “Metropolitan 400” – members of historically notable local
families in the principal American cities, generally represented on the Social Register

“Celebrities” – prominent entertainers and media personalities

the “Chief Executives” – presidents and CEO’s of the most important companies within each industrial sector

the “Corporate Rich” – major landowners and corporate shareholders

the “Warlords” – senior military officers, most importantly the Joint Chiefs of Staff

the “Political Directorate” – “fifty-odd men of the executive
branch” of the U.S. federal government, including the senior leadership
in the Executive Office of the President, sometimes variously drawn from elected officials of the Democratic and Republican parties but usually professional government bureaucrats”

After they’ve used the economic depression to achieve even greater “political integration” then it’ll only be a matter of time before they unveil plans for an EU military. Perhaps the establishment of Britain thinks we are better off with NATO for the time being but sooner or late the EU will be pushing for a unified military and no doubt using the tried and tested existential threats of global terrorism to achieve this. I can almost hear the EU bureaucrats saying “global terrorism is something we must unite together to fight therefore the EU military is essential if we to protect the free democratic countries of Europe”. These people think Orwell’s 1984 is an instruction manual.

They passed the USA PATRIOT Act – and I did nothing because I am a patriot. They passed the USA Freedom Act – and I believe in freedom. They nominated Hillary Clinton – and I voted for the lesser evil. They declared medical martial law – and I didn’t want to kill grandma. They said […]

This is the true birthplace of Harry Potter, if you define ‘birthplace’ as the spot where I put pen to paper for the first time.* I was renting a room in a flat over what was then a sports shop. The first bricks of Hogwarts were laid in a flat in Clapham Junction. pic.twitter.com/HVORnPVboK — […]

https://www.built-environment-networking.com/event/webinar-large-scale-regeneration/ I will be Very interested to hear Mark WIlliams speak at this, he was very interesting on Newsnight on 29th April. I have been asked to say a little about RLD’s return, so my comments will be short reflecting that we are the new…https://t.co/koIuX6CXko https://t.co/oCb7t4Yk2T — RealRLD (@rld_real_CPR) May 20, 2020 I have […]

Noski Deville, recepient of the Jules Wright Prize 2015, on set Jules Wright PrizeJules Wright Prize Over the past three editions, the Jules Wright Prize celebrated the behind-the-scenes work by women working in creative technical roles with artists filmmakers enabling them to bring their visions to screen. A £5,000 prize was presented to a female creative technician who has […]

Open Bazaar is a peer to peer e bay, back in 2016 it was quite hard to build on your own machine , I did , it is now as easy as any app in any app store , all it requires is critical mass. March 25, 2017 ON TULIP MANIAS AND FRAGILITY IN OUR […]

Save as PDF My Authors John Lee Hooker Boogie Chillen original 1948 versionvia @YouTube BEIGEL SHOP | BATTLE OF BRICK LANE, PART 1PART 1 | It’s time to settle the debate. Beigel Shop VS Beigel Bake. Which do you prefer??? 🥯https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P3fnOUScDc Beigel Bake for me, many a trip home from the Bethnal Green Ballet was topped off […]

What is the Integrity Initiative? A short briefing paper Integrity Initiative links from from around 40 countries and some Atlantic Council links – Part 1 of 4 6 JANUARY, 2019 / AKTIVISTERFORFED This is part 1 of 4 of Integrity Initiative links from around 40 countries and some Atlantic Council links. The list is compiled by Activists for peace on January […]

David Graeber@davidgraeber future historians will see the post-2015 Guardian as a priceless resource. Day to day, it documents of how the UK’s middle-aged professional managerial classes, having allied themselves entirely with finance capital, collectively lost their shit as young people embraced socialism 1,829 3:13 PM – Jul 25, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy Something […]